The Truth is I can only hold onto Truth
for the length of a deep breath of
awe. A glimmer of light, ten beats of
my heart before reality fills the space
with emotions, needs, dreams,
making it difficult to savor  the
delicious freedom of Truth.

Yesterday, shrouded in the pain of absence I
searched for an answer – how to stop
an unbearable ache not found in my mind
or seared in my heart, rather embedded
in every disposition of my spirit, pulse
of my body, charge of my brain. I
knew she was not longer here.

My red and white soft furred border-collie,
with the freckles and snout of a brittany,
gifted with unending love, bearer of divine
gift to everyone who stopped long enough
to catch her eye. A single treat ensured life-
long devotion. Her life not nearly long enough.
We released her from suffering with a
great desire that she might truly run free.

Today I encountered in a fleeting moment
acceptance of her life as temporal presence,
a gift wrapped in an eternal love.
In that moment of oneness I knew
she marked my being with a love
that will never diminish, that cannot
be taken away, a gift for all eternity.

Now there abides in my reality absence
and presence, pain and healing.
The truth is that loss is only bearable
when I remember that the essence
of a life endures forever in love.